a petition to ask Emmanuel Macron “to respect this promise”

In April, the Head of State announced the full reimbursement of wheelchairs in 2024, in view of the Paris Paralympic Games.

“You must respect this promise, because it has been a real hope for all wheelchair users and their loved ones”writes Sébastien Peytavie – first wheelchair-bound deputy to sit in the National Assembly – in the petition he launched on January 26, nine months after the National Disability Conference, on April 26, 2023.

On this occasion, Emmanuel Macron announced a series of measures to improve the daily lives of “12 million French people” concerned, including the full reimbursement of wheelchairs in 2024, with a view to the Paralympic Games. “An important and expected promise”underlines the environmentalist deputy from Dordogne, member of the Social Affairs Commission of the National Assembly in this text addressed to the President of the Republic.

More than 50,000 signatures

The petition collected more than 52,000 signatures on Monday, including those of Michaël Jeremiasz, head of mission of the French delegation for the Paris 2024 Games, Laurence Tiennot-Herment, president of the AFM-Téléthon, Nicolas Peifer, Paralympic tennis player, Joël Jeannot , Paralympic cyclist or even Pascale Ribes, president of the APF France Handicap.

“You must respect this promise, because it is not a question here of luxury, but of the dignity and autonomy of people. People with disabilities pay for this dignity today out of their own pockets”, also writes Sébastien Peytavie. The chosen one takes his own example: “My armchair costs 8,000 euros, because it is tailor-made and light. It is not luxury when you take it out of the car ten times a day. An armchair which weighs 15 kilos or which weighs 6 kilos, that is not ‘is not the same thing’he explains on France Bleu Périgord.

Sébastien Peytavie recalls that currently many people with disabilities are forced to launch “online prize pools or organize events to pay for their chair”. The deputy for Périgord Noir also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, because he wishes to take an active part in the negotiations on chair reimbursements.